Does Customer Satisfaction Predict Shopper Intentions?

Abstract

Facing difficult times, retailers are anxious to stimulate store visits and positive word-of-mouth. Unfortunately, most retailing studies regard satisfaction as the ultimate dependent variable and fail to examine post-purchase variables. The ones that do, focus on dissatisfaction and its effect on complaining behavior and negative word-of-mouth. This study investigates possible relationships between satisfaction and post-purchase intentions
of shoppers. The authors define overall satisfaction as opposed to transactional satisfaction and further differentiate this from satisfaction in specific shopping situations. They examine the effects of both levels of satisfaction on patronage intentions and intentions to recommend the store to others. The results show that in some shopping situations, situational satisfaction has a direct influence on post-purchase intentions as well as an indirect effect mediated by overall satisfaction. In other shopping situations, situational satisfaction
only has an indirect effect on post-purchase intentions or does not influence them at all. Overall satisfaction, however, has a strong positive influence on post-purchase intentions. These findings suggest that retailers should not simply focus on avoiding customer dissatisfaction; instead, they should be proactive in their efforts to create highly satisfied customers.